If you have anything more than a passing interest in the history and/or soul of Houston, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. Former Press staff writer (and occasional theater critic) David Theis has done yeoman's work in rounding up this anthology of writings about Houston, ranging from Cabeza de Vaca's accounts of miserable wanderings here through the first Anglo settlement and on down, to the boom/bust years of the late 20th century and Houston's inauspicious entry into the 21st, with an excerpt from Mimi Swartz and Sharron Watkins's account of the Enron meltdown. It's not all nonfiction, either: Theis also features fiction and poetry from natives like Donald Barthelme and Vassar Miller and temporary Houstonians such as Larry McMurtry and Mary Gaitskill. Until now, these writings have been as scattered as the city that inspired them. No more. Theis has slapped together much of the best into one 2.4-pound package.

The bungalow-like bar (its name stands for Reopened Houston Avenue Bar, supposedly) opened last year only a couple of blocks from Washington Avenue, but light-years away from that strip's preening see-and-be-seen sensibility. REHAB is just a bar, and that's all it is: Cold beer and mixed drinks at downturn-friendly prices, plus an affable staff, plenty of outdoor seating and a jukebox loaded with all the honky-tonk and classic rock anyone could ask for. Lately, local musician Mitch Jacobs has been acting as the jukebox one night a week as well. Toss some darts or horseshoes if you're feeling competitive, and keep an eye out for Alfred, the bar's cat, who is fond of lounging on the canopy above the patio deck.

Despite being only in his early thirties, Alex Luster has been shooting video in the Houston streets for 20 or so years, having hustled his way into a job at a Spanish-language news station at the tender age of 14. That experience shows in Stick 'Em Up!, his debut feature-length documentary about Houston's wheat-pasting street poster artists. While he has technical skills lessers only dream of, Luster also has a few talents that simply can't be taught: among them, an appreciation for the city's dark corners and landscape we've never seen the better of, as well as an impeccable sense of comic timing. Stick 'Em Up! has yet to be officially released, but it turned the house at River Oaks three times during a spring sneak preview and had the audience howling for more each time. We're predicting a bright future for both the film and its director.

Picking a derby nickname is one of the most important rites of passage in the flat track world. It's got to be clever, and must also instill fear in the hearts of fellow skaters. Bonus points if it calls to mind a buxom but imposing beauty. It's for all of these reasons that we chose Kym KarSmashUin, who also wears the imposing number 13. No way we'd mess with her. Annnnd point, Psych Ward Sirens.

Perhaps you remember that in the days B.Z. (before Zuckerberg), if someone wanted to invite you somewhere — be it a birthday party or their band's CD release show — they would send you an "eVite," an e-mail that directed you to a quaint little RSVP site where you could reply yes, no or maybe, perhaps leave a brief message and go about your day. Some people still use this system, which has turned out to be a smart move. Facebook invitations are easy to ignore and ultimately misleading — one informal calculus says that only about one in ten people who replies "yes" will actually bother to show up. Since eVites work from a mailing list, they're specifically targeted to people who have already expressed an interest in something, such as the monthly acoustic concert series Heights Live! at Heights Presbyterian Church. Every few weeks, another eVite shows up inviting us to an intimate evening with some of the top local and regional talent around, such as Austin harmonizers The Trishas or the Honky Tonk Blood crew of John Evans, Hank Schyma and Johnny Falstaff. Quick, easy and painless. By the way, Heights Live! also has a Facebook page. They're not complete Luddites.

Fans of photographer Chuy Benitez have watched the young artist grow by leaps and bounds over the last few years. After graduating from Notre Dame in 2005, he came to the University of Houston's MFA program and quickly got noticed on the local arts scene. A show at Project Row Houses in 2008 led to a well-received FotoFest exhibit at Lawndale Art Center. Benitez is currently teaching photography at St. John's School and Rice University as well as serving on the board of directors for the Houston Center for Photography, in addition to his own projects. He has two big shows on the horizon. He'll be participating as a photographer in the celebration of Houston's 175th anniversary, and he'll be curating a FotoFest show at Lawndale Art Center.